Berlin School of experimental psychology


The Berlin School of Experimental Psychology is founded by Carl Stumpf, a pupil of Franz Brentano and Hermann Lotze and a professor at the University of Berlin. It adhered to the method of experimental phenomenology, which understood it as the science of phenomena. It is also noted as the originator of Gestalt psychology and

History

Stumpf founded the Berlin Laboratory of Experimental Psychology in 1893. It was a refinement of Brentano's neo-Aristotelian theory or the study of phenomena's qualitative properties. Stumpf influenced his pupils such as Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Lewin, and these contributed to the school's development. Lewin, for instance, developed a set of models and ideas linked to change management theory and practice. These psychologists further refined Stumpf's work, which facilitated experimental investigation that culminated in the development of Gestalt psychology. These psychologists stressed the primacy of objects as units of experience, instead of sensations.
Only after Köhler took over the direction of the psychology institute in 1922 did the Berlin School effectively become a school for Gestalt psychology.